Recombining Forums

[Dice4Hire]

I like keeping 3E, Pathfinder and 4E separate, but maybe the mods could be more lenient with publishers and such stuff in general.

I personally only look at 4E and general these days, with a very seldom foray into meta or even more seldom elsewhere, meaning I miss about 90% of the site.

So I like how it is now, but it is true general is pretty stagnant, with threads I did the last post to sticking around on the front page for days sometimes.

 

[Hussar]

I like the split as well.

It keeps general for just that - stuff that ((should)) be edition and game independent. While a certain amount of game specific stuff is always going to happen, general doesn't need fifteen threads on this or that specific product or game.

BTW, is it just me, or did the list for each page get a lot longer some months ago? That might be one of the reasons why people think topics are sticking around longer.

 

[pawsplay]

General gives us some breathing room for discussion. we can talk about different games, playstyles, issues in gaming, and so forth, without catching too much wind from edition diehards. If someone hates X about game Y, the small degree of specialization we have allows them to avoid game Y much of the time.

 

[drothgery]

I like the forums separate, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better to re-categorize the forums. Maybe put General, 4e Discussion, Pathfinder discussion, D&D Legacy discussion, and Other RPG discussion in the first group?

 

[Scotley]

I much prefer the separate forums. I am a fan of 4e, Pathfinder and legacy games as well as other systems. I'm currently playing all of them. I find it helpful to be able to go to a forum on the specific system when I'm thinking about/discussing/working with that system.

When I'm not looking for anything specific, rather than visit the general forums, I go to the 'today's posts' link on the 'do stuff' menu. That way I can see what interesting discussion is going on in any forum. I highly recommend doing this to any fan of the 'mega forum' approach. You'll definitely get the feeling that there is a lot of discussion going on here. My only problem with this approach is that sometimes the twitter feeds clutter up this list. They don't really seem to fit when I'm going looking for things to read and discuss.

 

[Bullgrit]

Questions to consider:

How long should a post remain on the first page (after the last, or zero replies)?

How far down should a post fall (after the last, or zero replies) in 24 hours?

In my opinion, I'd like to not have to go past the first page to see all the threads started since I last check the forum yesterday. I definitely don't want to have to surf back further than the second page to see all the latest threads.

Bullgrit

 

[GandalfMithrandir]

I think that if all the General RPG threads are combined, edition wars will go way up and the mods will need to crack down hard to make it very clear that it is not acceptable, aside from that I think combining them would be ok.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The attached image might be useful to consider - it is a snapshot of the state of the forums at 2.30pm GMT.

I've included the 'Viewing' stats, as that gives a useful idea of the popularity of the forums as they are right now (number of threads/posts alone may be skewed by the age of the forums - the D&D legacy forum might have been around longer, hence accruing more posts).

Speaking with a moderator hat on, the split of legacy and 4e specific stuff from General has allowed discussions to flourish between interested parties without much unwanted interference from those who dislike the specific product. That has been a Good Thing. General system-agnostic discussions then proliferate in General RPG which is great.

However, I can understand how the site may look less busy and so not so attractive for some people.

I wonder whether one solution might be to group the most popular forums at the top? Thus the top forums are

Main Forums
- General RPG Discussion
- 4E Discussion
- D&D Legacy Discussion
- Play by Post Games
- 4e Fan Creations and House Rules
- D&D Legacy House Rules
- Pathfinder RPG Discussion
- Software, Computers, Video Games and D&D Utilities
- Other RPG Discussion


Additional Forums
- Media Lounge & Off Topic
- Story Hour
- Art Gallery, Cartography & Miniatures Painting
- RPG Industry Forum
- Plots and Places
- Archive-threads
- Board Games
- War of the Burning Sky
- Gamers Seeking Gamers
- Meta


Obviously something more sensible than that would be in order, but I'm sure that there would be good mileage in ensuring that the most popular forums are at the top of the page - currently positions 2-5 in the main listing are occupied by the least popular forums!

Thoughts?

 

[jonesy]

Obviously something more sensible than that would be in order, but I'm sure that there would be good mileage in ensuring that the most popular forums are at the top of the page...

How about this:

General RPG Discussion
RPG Industry Forum
4E Discussion
4E Fan Creations and House Rules
Plots and Places

War of the Burning Sky

D&D Legacy Discussion
D&D Legacy House Rules

Pathfinder RPG Discussion
Other RPG Discussion (popular by numbers, but not focused on any one RPG)

Gamers Seeking Gamers
Play by Post Games
Story Hour

Media Lounge & Off Topic (might be popular but does it attract people here?)
Software, Computers, Video Games and D&D Utilities
Art Gallery, Cartography & Miniatures Painting
Board Games & CCGs

Meta
News
Archive-threads

 

[weem]

I know you were looking for a more straight forward answer of whether or not to simply keep the forums as is, or merge them, but I could not help but submit my own idea of a re-organization of the forums (it just seemed fun).

Anyway, this is how I would do it for my own reading preference, understanding full well that I might be the only one to like it this way...

...with that said, and as has been mentioned, it's always one of those damned if you do damned if you don't things. Your decisions have done well for EN World for a long time now. You know the numbers the best, and I would imagine that you are the best person to decide how to handle it.

Asking for opinions is great though, and appreciated - I hope the feedback helps in some way